The Relationship Between Personality and Turnover Intention Among Academicians of Private Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia: Boredom at Workplace as Mediator

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Asia-Pacific Social Science Review 19(3) 2019, pp. 262–269

The Relationship Between Personality and Turnover Intention Among Academicians of Private Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia: Boredom at Workplace as Mediator

Michael Teng, Zaiton Hassan,^*and Mark Kasa Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

A substantial number of studies in organizational development seem to emphasize on two opposite side of employees’ well-being at the workplace—

positive and negative. Although the positive aspect of work, such as engagement and flow, is considered new, negative symptoms, such as job burnout, happen to dominate the research area. Boredom is negative well-being that deteriorates organizations (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2014). Boredom is the state of

“disconnection” of an individual in terms of cognition, emotion, and physical strength, aside from lacking in interest, passion, and attention towards a job under a non-stimulating working environment (Teng, Hassan,

& Kasa, 2016). Emerging findings reported across many nations portray that boredom tends to dampen organizational development by negatively affecting one’s health status (Harju, Hakanen, & Schaufeli, 2014), job performance (Watt & Hargis, 2010), job satisfaction (Spector & Fox, 2010), emotion (Culp, 2006), attendance (Kass, Vodanovich, & Callender, 2001), well-being (Sommers & Vodanovich, 2000), and monetary loss (Eddy, D’Abate, & Thurston, 2010).

Boredom is commonly related to the monotonous workload, mental under load, poor utilization of skills, and absence of meaning (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2014) that stimulates the feeling of getting bored. As depicted

in the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, employee well-being is influenced by the disparity of job demands and resources. High job demands result in job burnout (Bakker, Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2003; Hakanen, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2006; Xanthopoulou et al., 2007), which in turn, lead to poor organizational commitment and turnover intention (Hakanen, Schaufeli, & Ahola, 2008). On the other hand, high job resources promote positive organizational outcomes via work engagement (Bakker et al., 2010; Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). It has been predicted that boredom most probably occurs when employees work under poor job demands and resources environment (Reijseger et al., 2013).

Mercer-Lynn, Bar, and Eastwood (2014) claimed that apart from organization and work level demands and resources, boredom is related to one’s personality traits. Every individual has different tolerance levels towards boredom. For instance, extroverts are more outgoing and therefore, have greater tolerance towards boredom and vice-versa. Certain personality traits seem to correlate with turnover intention and the actual turnover (Zimmerman, 2008). However, only a handful of studies have investigated personality as an antecedent of boredom. With that, this present study investigated individual personalities, particularly extroverts and neurotics, as well as their relationships